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Sons of Italy® Releases Summer 2006 Book Club Selections

WASHINGTON, D.C. - July 17, 2006 - Relax in the summer sun with one of this season's Sons of Italy® Book Club selections. The list includes books for readers of all ages with a heartwarming book for pre-teens, Penny From Heaven. Check out the Sons of Italy® Book Club for Summer 2006:

Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples by Dan Hofstadter. It was founded 2,500 years ago by the Ancient Greeks, was once the culture capital of Europe and became a battleground during World War II, when its citizens drove the Nazis out. Small wonder that Naples and its charming, eccentric people have thoroughly captivated writer and New Yorker contributor Dan Hofstadter. Through his stories and vivid descriptions, Hofstadter captures both the allure and sorrow of Naples and the Neapolitans. [$24.00; hardcover; 247 pages; Knopf]

The Stonecutter's Aria by Carol Faenzi. The true story of Aristide Giovannoni, a stone carver from Carrara with a passion for opera, is the basis for this novel, which, like an opera, is divided into three acts that span over 100 years. It begins with Aristide's 30-day crossing to America in the early 1900s on a ship where "disease, exhaustion and fear clung to us like our wrinkled and filthy clothes," and ends in the present with his great-granddaughter, the author of the novel. [$16.95; paperback; 314 pages; Aperto Books. To order: 800/345-6665]

Sometimes I Dream in Italian By Rita Ciresi. Angelina ("Angel") and Lina Lupo rebel against the rigid Old World values of their immigrant Italian parents as they seek their own road to happiness and success in this series of inter-connected short stories about second-generation immigrant children and their conflicts.In her honest, vivid and often funny description of life in a traditional working class Italian family, Ciresi examines what it means to be an Italian American woman in America with its paralyzing freedom and disturbing lack of moral guidelines. [$23.95; hardcover; 209 pages; Delacorte Press]

ALSO WORTH READING…

The Innocent By Magdalen Nabb. Salvatore Guarnaccia, a Sicilian detective living in Florence, attempts to solve the murder of a Japanese woman, mysteriously found floating in a fountain in the Boboli Gardens. After identifying the victim, he uncovers her dramatic escape from her homeland while suspicion of guilt falls on one of his colleagues in this novel that is both a social commentary on modern Italy and an entertaining crime story. [$22.00; hardcover; 240 pages; Soho Crime]

Penny From Heaven By Jennifer L. Holm. Inspired by Newbery Honor winner Jennifer Holm's own Italian American family, Penny from Heaven is a heartwarming book for pre-teens age 9 – 12 that reveals a lot about what keeps families together or tears them apart. It's the summer of 1953. Penny Falucci, 11 going on 12, lives with her American mother and grandparents, but she has an open invitation to visit her father's Italian family, who refuse to talk about his death. [$14.00; hardcover; 288 pages; Random House]

Sebastiano: A Sicilian Legacy By Connie Mandracchia DeCaro. Both an historical novel and a love story, the saga of Sebastiano, an iron worker, and Costanza, an aristocrat, is set against the background of the historical events that led to Sicily unifying with Italy in 1860. [$14.95; paperback; 232 pages; Legas]

The Sons of Italy® National Book Club is dedicated to the works of writers who focus on Italian American issues, themes, experiences and Italian culture. OSIA chooses three to four fiction and non-fiction books each quarter for a total of 12 to 16 titles a year.

OSIA encourages its 700+ lodges as well as other Italian American organizations, clubs and individuals to choose one or more of the books each quarter to read and donate copies to their local schools or public libraries.

Most book club selections can be bought on the OSIA Web site (www.osia.org).

Order all your books, magazines, etc. through OSIA and Amazon.com. Just go to www.osia.org, click on "Sons of Italy® Book Club" and choose either a Book Club selection or another book or product. Most orders are shipped within 24 hours.

As a special bonus, Amazon.com will donate a percentage of all sales ordered on our site to OSIA.

OSIA is the largest and oldest national organization in the U.S. for men and women of Italian heritage in the United States. It has more than 600,000 members and supporters and a network of more than 700 chapters coast to coast. OSIA works at the community, national and international levels to promote the heritage and culture of an estimated 26 million Italian Americans, the nation's fifth largest ethnic group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.